Wiggins, of Lady Margaret Terrace, was fined £700, ordered to pay £620 in prosecution costs and a £70 victim surcharge.

He avoided a driving ban after the judge endorsed his license with eight penalty points at Cardiff Crown Court.

Francis said that she and her husband John Clark felt lucky to be alive.

All was silent. I had no idea what had happened’

“I had just gone to make lunch when there was a loud bang, doors slammed shut and coats fell off their hooks,” he said.

“There was a gust of air and dust that hit my face and then everything was silent. I had no idea what had happened.”

He walked up the stairs to the front of the house to see a large hole through the road, the wall demolished, and his living room and bedroom open to the outside world.

“I tried to open the door from the kitchen to the front room, but it wouldn’t open, so I knew the ceiling had collapsed. I went up the stairs, opened the door, and could see that the front and side walls had disappeared.

“It looked like a bomb site and there were tree trunks, about 30 or 40, everywhere.”

She said: “We are very lucky, if my husband had been home he probably would have been sitting in the living room and we could have been searching for a body today.

Gwent Police said the crash caused “substantial damage” and residents had to be evacuated from their homes as a precaution.